And this is why you should always check to make sure the names and email addresses in your "To" field are the right ones.


2 workers, fired over Obama e-mail, file suit
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
By Timothy McNulty, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Two workers at the Centers for Rehab Services at UPMC Mercy hospital who were fired after they shared an e-mail comparing Barack Obama to "another tar ball washed up on the shore" have filed suit against the center, saying their constitutional rights were violated.

Administrative assistant Deborah Bonnano sent the "tar ball" e-mail to rehabilitation aide James Sprung during the Gulf oil spill last summer, along with a photo of Mr. Obama running on a beach. The center fired them, saying it was "an inappropriate e-mail that contained political and discriminatory content."

But a civil suit filed in Common Pleas Court Friday said the termination violated their constitutional rights to free speech, and specifically their opinions that Mr. Obama was "dithering while oil continued to gush" after the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion.

The e-mail was apparently discovered after Mr. Sprung tried to send the e-mail to his sister but inadvertently sent it elsewhere.